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Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Legendary Pictures moves to Universal

As I previously posted, Legendary Pictures was shopping around to find a new partner after choosing not to renew with Warner Bros. This meant a pretty great deal, especially for the DC Comics movies.
It has been announced that Legendary has chosen to partner with Universal Pictures and NBC. As a result, all Legendary properties such as The Hangover trilogy, The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, and Man of Steel will now be owned by Universal. This also means future projects such as Justice League and Man of Steel 2 will now be under Universal and not Warner Bros.

Thomas Tull, Legendary's CEO, announced the merger during a red carpet interview for Legendary's newest film, Pacific Rim. He stated that he wanted to go beyond what Warner Bros. could offer and moved to Universal for the "theme park and a television and cable network." In other words, he obviously sees the potential for profits on theme park rides based on the films (no doubt the DC Comics movies) and potential television shows that would air on NBC, USA, or SyFy. This also means Universal's projects can be co-financed by Legendary if they choose to do so.

UNIVERSAL CITY, CA, July 10, 2013 — Universal Pictures and Legendary
Entertainment will enter into a multi-year film partnership in which the
two companies will produce and co-finance Legendary and Universal films
with Universal distributing Legendary films worldwide. Making
Universal its new home enables Legendary to not only leverage the power
and success of Universal’s film business and theme parks, but also the
cross promotional support from NBCUniversal and Comcast assets through
the company’s “Symphony” program. The announcement was made today by
Universal Pictures Chairman Adam Fogelson and Co-Chairman Donna Langley
and Legendary Entertainment Chairman and CEO Thomas Tull.

“Comcast and NBCUniversal’s global assets in film, television and
theme parks offer Legendary unmatched breadth and opportunity to grow
our business. We are delighted to be in business with this exceptional
team and look forward to a successful partnership,” said Tull.

Universal and Legendary’s film partnership is a complementary
arrangement for both companies. Legendary, which is known for producing
and financing successful large scale films, will continue to create and
finance tent pole films based on intellectual property that is uniquely
appealing to the coveted fanboy audience. And Universal, which has a
proven track record of turning films of all shapes and sizes into hits
with special skills in growing and nourishing original franchises, will
market, co-finance and distribute Legendary films for five years
beginning in 2014.

“Legendary has demonstrated a keen ability to identify and acquire
powerful fresh intellectual property based ideas, match them with strong
filmmakers and turn them into blockbuster hits,” said Fogelson and
Langley. “The Universal team is thrilled to have the opportunity to
partner with Legendary in turning those ideas into the best and most
successful versions of themselves around the world.”

Under the terms of the deal Universal and Legendary will jointly
identify opportunities to expand Legendary’s franchises and intellectual
property into Universal’s theme parks, and Universal will have an
opportunity to collaborate with Legendary on projects in China following
Legendary’s historic deal with China Film Group.

“Legendary continues to prove that big ideas are relevant and profitable
with our global movie-going audience. We couldn’t be more thrilled to
embrace the challenges and changing marketplace with Thomas and his team
and we are also excited about what opportunities this will bring to our
Theme Parks around the world,” said Ron Meyer, President and COO,
Universal Studios.

“We are very excited to be in business with Thomas and Legendary,”
said Steve Burke, CEO of NBCUniversal. “The partnership is a perfect fit
for both companies and I am confident that together we will be in an
even better position to deliver compelling, profitable entertainment
content to a global audience for years to come.”

This is a pretty big deal. Universal probably just landed one of the biggest deals possible right now.

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